


The Next Steps

by thewightknight



Series: First Order Husbands [10]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-03
Updated: 2020-12-03
Packaged: 2021-03-10 05:41:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,783
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27809269
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thewightknight/pseuds/thewightknight
Summary: Now that the new arrays are being added to the fleet, Hux takes steps to protect them.
Relationships: Armitage Hux/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Series: First Order Husbands [10]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/383299
Comments: 4
Kudos: 32





	The Next Steps

**Author's Note:**

> This part's much shorter than the previous one, but this was a good place for a break.

Hux’s first impression of Errond Ren wasn’t mistaken—the man was a giant. He would have had to stoop to go through doorways even without the extra inches added by his heavy boots, and his shoulders brushed the sides of the frame. Hux had grown accustomed to feeling dwarfed by Ren, but this was ridiculous. There was little chance of another assignation attempt so soon after Canady’s, but his hulking presence was a bald statement as to Snoke’s valuation of his continued existence. 

His new personal guard’s first greeting mirrored Utha Ren’s. “I am not permitted to discuss Kylo Ren’s continued distress at his absence from your side, Admiral,” he said during their first meeting. As he had with Utha, Hux maintained a healthy level of paranoia around him, nevertheless. The knight didn’t reveal as much of himself as Utha Ren had, so his responses to Errond’s questions were always scrupulously worded. At face value they professed his complete loyalty to the Order, and hence to Snoke, and he could deny any subtext.

After Errond Ren came Tyee Ren, and then Maarccil, then back to Utha Ren. It surprised him to see her again, as he’d assumed Snoke would keep moving them through so he wouldn’t develop a rapport with any of them and thus possibly compromise their loyalty.

“How goes your project?” she asked the first night after her return. 

“Well enough to turn my attention to other things,” he said, and she raised her glass to him.

“And those other things are?”

“The arrays will make us something to be feared again, after Starkiller. Before the galaxy learns of their existence, we need to be loved first.”

“And of course you have a plan for that.”

  
“Of course,” Hux said. “Come to my meeting with the fleet tomorrow if you’re interested in the details.”

“Oh, I’m interested,” she said.

Some attendees attended in person, while others filled their chairs with holograms. Hux had ordered every general in the First Order’s fleet to attend, and they all appeared, much to Hux’s surprise. Some of them, perhaps, were waiting for his downfall still, he supposed, but as he looked from face to face, their faces depicted interest instead of disdain.

Hux waited for them to settle before beginning.

“I spoke to you before of how the First Order will establish a peace that neither the Empire nor the New Republic ever achieved. In order to accomplish this, we will move against the major criminal elements, specifically those that specialize in slave and drug trades. While we will, at this point, not address those who willingly sell themselves into servitude, we will make it known that the First Order does not tolerate forced enslavement. It will provide us with a combination of benefits. There will be a huge upwelling of support from races who these traders regularly victimize for people and resources, and also from slaves who see us as a means to liberation. It will also provide us with resources, as we can co-opt freed personnel, especially children, into the stormtrooper program if we cannot reunite them with their people.”

“I thought the program didn’t recruit past a certain age?” a general asked.

“We do not normally, but we will make an exception in this case. If they are unfit for the stormtrooper program, we can still absorb them opted into the Order, in administrative or support positions, and their gratitude promise of such placement should be high. Many of them would never aspire to a life beyond grubbing out an existence in poverty.” Hux paused, surveying the room for possible dissenters, but only saw nodding heads. “We will make a special effort in some cases, namely, those we evaluate and find to be unsuitable, to reunite them with their families. This will prevent some unnecessary drain on our resources while allaying any rumors that might arise, of us stealing these children for our own purposes.”

“Which we, in fact, so doing,” another general added, with the hint of a smile on his lips.

Hux nodded, favoring the speaker with a brief smile of his own before taking a sip of tea and continuing. “All of this will simultaneously increase the size of our future forces and generate goodwill from the masses. Especially when we make it known we are setting up a school for all the children we cannot reunite with their families.”

“And how will the Order finance all this?”

Again, Hux scrutinized the questioner, but observed only honest curiosity and not dissent. “Through assets seized from the drug runners.” He said. “First Order interrogation techniques, with assistance from our esteemed Knights, will allow us to access their sealed accounts. We will also utilize such assets in setting up rehabilitation centers for addicts.”

“You are turning us into a charitable organization, then?” That was one of the old guard, a white haired old man who’d served the Emperor.

Hux schooled his face, not allowing a frown to form. “I am turning us into an organization that people will think they can turn to for assistance, yes. In such a way is loyalty gained.”

“And when the cartels band against you after you destroy the first few?” the old man asked.

“Then they will learn firsthand of the power of our new weapons.”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Once the array proved successful, he implemented the next part of his plan. Various contacts led him to certain people with very specific skills. They made promises of safety and payment, and that is how Hux found himself across a table at two men who couldn’t be more the opposite of each other if they tried.

To his left sat an impeccably dressed man in a tailored suit with a red flower on the lapel. His hair was styled and his nails buffed and he oozed charm. He favored Hux with a faint smile as he sat with almost military posture in his chair, seeming both superior and humble at the same time. He came highly recommended by all three of the Order’s military suppliers.

Two chairs separated him from the other occupant of the room. This man slouched in the chair, hat half covering his face, and had propped his feet up on the table. His clothes were as slovenly as his posture, and his hygiene left much to be desired. Hux would have preferred not to associate with this one, but he had come as highly recommended as the other. The Order also worked with less respectable suppliers, for needed goods they could only obtain from illicit routes out of the Core Worlds, and each of these had named this nameless man when asked.

“Gentlebeings, thank you for agreeing to meet with me.” He received a gracious nod and a grunt in return. “I have a special project for you. We need you to find the holes in our security and help us plug them.”

“Don’t want your next big s-s-superweapon to go boom too?” the slovenly man asked. When he tilted his head up, Hux saw the letters ‘DJ’ embossed on its brim. Hux refrained from scowling at the man, but it was a near thing.

“What would prevent one of us from leaving a backdoor in, for later nefarious purposes?” the elegant one asked. One eyebrow cocked, somehow pointing at the other slicer.

“You will each test each other’s proposed systems. If either of you gains access into the other’s system, your payment will increase by twenty-five percent. I encourage both of to make any suggestions for improvement on the other’s work, as well. For each change we implement, you will receive an extra one percent.”

“Is that b-b-before the twenty-f-five or after?”

“After, of course, in each instance.” Snoke had opened his coffers when Hux had showed him the test footage. Knowing their Supreme Leader had access to such resources and had been sitting on them all these years had lowered his estimation of the being even further.

Before he’d brought in the slicers Hux had put his engineers to work on the physical aspects of their security. Unlike these two, they had all been First Order personnel. They had made sure there were no such weak spots like the exhaust ports that had been the Death Star’s downfall and had put systems in place to provide the arrays with triple redundancy on shielding, with a three-factor authorization to take each layer them down. The only time they would be vulnerable would be the fraction of a second when they fired, but the discharge of the weapon would obliterate any firepower focused on them at that point.

He hated bringing in outside personnel to test the security of the systems that held these safeguards in place, but there was no other choice for this. There was no one under his command who had the skill set these two possessed.

“You will, of course, will work separately, and we will allow no contact outside of your individual rooms for the duration of your stay. We will see to it that we meet all your needs throughout.”

That would be a simple thing for the disreputable one, at least. How he survived on the junk food and caf he’d demanded, Hux had no interest in knowing.

“When do we s-s-start?”

It took seven weeks and the final total came to an amount that would have financed two dreadnoughts, but in the end, they satisfied Hux’s requirements. His retrofitted Star Destroyer fleet would be unstoppable.

The Finalizer, of course, was the first ship that received an array. She was Hux’s ship still, even with Mitaka nominally in command.

The arrays gathered charge slowly, as they traveled through space, unlike his Starkiller, which had consumed the sun about which they orbited. It required an update to the ship’s systems, but his team of engineers could siphon excess charge and utilize it, which meant they needed less fuel. Hux estimated that in a little over a decade they would make back what they had spent on the code-breakers with these savings.

The new designs included storage batteries so ships could recharge their arrays quickly in combat situations, but they still ended up with an excess of energy. Their engineers had modified the engines to use this energy before they dipped into the ship’s coaxium. This had a pleasant side effect. For the first time in Hux’s life, they could adequately heat his ship. They even had the luxury of hot water for showers, even for the troopers. The increase in both efficiencies and morale were remarkable. On the day they made the adjustment to the environmental systems, he hung up his greatcoat in his closet with a happy sigh.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! If you want to say hi, [check out my profile](https://archiveofourown.org/users/thewightknight/profile) for where I’m currently hanging out on this here internet thing. If you liked this, please share! Kudos are love and comments are always appreciated, no matter how old the fic is.


End file.
